Hot Hight Wins Funny Car In Concord; Lucas Tops In Top Fuel

Robert Hight won his second straight race in Funny Car on Sunday. (RacinToday/HHP photo by Tami Kelly Pope)

CONCORD, N.C. – Funny Car driver Robert Hight repeated history Sunday at zMAX Dragway in the Carlyle Tools Carolina Nationals while Top Fuel’s Morgan Lucas secured his first-ever victory at the 6-year-old track as the Mello Yello NHRA Countdown to the Championship began with some interesting

scenarios.

In the other two professional categories, Jeg Coughlin claimed his third win this year in Pro Stock and Andrew Hines obtained Harley-Davidson’s first victory this season in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Hines was the only competitor not in the title battle to earn a victory in the first of six race weekends comprising the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship.

“I said I wanted to be a nightmare (to everybody in the top 10),” Hines said. “Today, we took out four of them (riders in the title battle).”

Hight may not have been someone’s nightmare over the weekend, but he probably raised some eyebrows as his performance mimicked his 2009 semifinal and final rounds at zMAX Dragway. Four years ago Hight defeated Matt Hagan in the final after beating a John Force Racing teammate in his semifinal round at zMAX Dragway. That year Hight defeated sister-in-law Ashley Force. This year he defeated her younger sister Courtney. The president of John Force Racing Inc. also entered the Countdown to the Championship 10th in the standings in 2009 and left in third, eventually capturing the championship. This year he entered in ninth and, once again, left in third.

“The standings don’t really show how good we’ve been,” said Hight, who now has back-to-back victories thanks to his win at the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis two weeks ago. “We had a lot of goofy things happen. I lost on a holeshot in Sonoma. On that same run, the fire bottles went off. We were blowing spark plugs out. We were better than this. Luckily, we just pulled it all together.”

Hight’s 29th career victory was his third at zMAX Dragway and left him tied with Pro Stock’s Greg

Morgan Lucas kicked off the Countdown with a win in Funny Car. (RacinToday/HHP photo by Tami Kelly Pope)

Anderson for the most in a pro class at the facility. He defeated Courtney Force when she encountered problems in the semifinal round. Hagan moved into the final round by defeating Don Schumacher Racing teammate Jack Beckman with an ET of 4.084. The final round was a classic battle between John Force Racing and DSR. Hagan posted the best ET – 4.066 – and the quickest speed – 313.58 mph – but it was Hight’s reaction time that made the difference — .055 to .074. That gave Hight two-thousandths of a second victory. Hight’s ET of 4.083 was coupled with a speed of 312.64 mph.

“Not many people beat Matt Hagan on holeshots,” Hight commented. “I’m not going to count on doing it again, either.”

Lucas made it clear early in the weekend that anyone who wanted a Top Fuel victory would have to defeat him. Lucas claimed the No. 1 position in the second qualifying round and never relinquished it. Using a car constructed in-house, Lucas downed Terry McMillen in the first round and teammate Brandon Bernstein, who smoked his tires, in the second round. That round, however, wasn’t clear sailing for Lucas.

“It broke a piston at some point around 300 feet,” said Lucas, who headed to the second race in the Countdown third in the standings. “I could feel it. I knew something was wrong. I just had to keep my foot in it and hoped everything panned out. When it let go it wasn’t pretty. When I got back one of the guys on the team said, ‘That was a lucky round. We’ll be fine from here on out.’”

The crewman’s statement proved prophetic. In the semifinal round, Doug Kalitta’s speed of 325.61 mph wasn’t enough to defeat Lucas in the 37th meeting between the two. Lucas produced an ET of 3.796 to Kalitta’s 3.818 to advance to the finals against Spencer Massey, who entered the weekend second in the standings. In the final round, Lucas’ and Massey’s reaction times were virtually identical. Lucas’ was .049 and Massey’s .050. Massey’s speed of 319.60 mph was faster than Lucas’ 317.49. However, Lucas possessed the ET edge, 3.788 to 3.816.

In Pro Stock, Erica Enders-Stevens time out of her Cagnazzi Racing Chevrolet Camaro this year due to sponsorship woes apparently affected her adversely in the semifinal round as she had a .031 reaction time to Jason Line’s .020. That left Line with a 6.579 ET to Enders-Stevens’ 6.597. Line, however, lost to four-time Pro Stock champion Coughlin in the final round. Coughlin’s third victory this season and 55th of his career allowed him to climb to second in the standings.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Hines had the lights on his side throughout the day. His opponents red lighted in the first, semifinal and final rounds. He won the second round on a holeshot with a 0.36 reaction time to Matt Smith’s .053.

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Final finish order (1-16) at the Sixth annual Carlyle Tools NHRA Carolina Nationals presented by NAPA Auto Parts at zMax Dragway. The race is the 19th of 24 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

Racin’ Today – Quote from John Force

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“As an example of the character of these guys, when Sturbin was with the Ft. Worth Star Telegram and I was racing at the Texas Motorplex, one of my favorite tracks he showed how he is an individual who gets it. He understands the sport and the drivers. Years ago I ran my mouth at the Texas Motorplex saying I was going to go out and set a record and if I didn’t I would eat his newspaper column. Well I didn’t set the record so I went into the press room and ate his column the next day. He told before I started that I didn’t have to follow through but I told him if I say something I am going to back it up whether I win or lose. That is the kind of pro Sturbin is as well as the rest of the writers at racintoday.com are. They will write the truth whether you like it or not.”

“You better not blame something on your car because Sturbin will dig and find out whether or not it was the car or you. He gets down in the trenches, tells the truth, and he knows what he is talking about. I am excited for these writers and this new website because I have always loved the media and I know that without the media you don’t have much. You have to be able to tell your story and get it right. These guys are guys who will make sure they get it right.” - JOHN FORCE